The Gaddis Gazette: February 2018 (aka the month of sickness and hospitals)

This month was not a good month for our family. At the end of January Emma got sick with what we now know as the adeno virus. I then got that same sickness but being pregnant I couldn't take any medicine besides Tylenol so I was laid up in bed for a week. This caused me to get pneumonia in my lungs and fluid around my lungs constricting my breathing. I was admitted to the hospital on February 3rd. They tried several ways to get the fluid out, first with just a needle and second with a chest tube. However after a week in the hospital I had to have surgery, a thoracotomy where they sucked out the fluid constricting my lung. I was in the ICU since the beginning and they were always scared to give me pain meds since I was pregnant. After the surgery I was in a lot of pain and it took 10 hours to get it under control. This is when my midwife and OB came and checked on me and gave me different pain meds. Why the nurses didn't call OB and ask what they could give me I don't know and I was so out of it and in so much pain I didn't think to ask. Four days after the surgery I was moved to a step down unit. I should not have been moved here, I wasn't sick enough for ICU, but I was still in too much pain for the step down unit. They removed the tubes on day five and moved me to the high risk maternity ward. The care here was great and I was here for about another five days because I couldn't get off of oxygen. I was in the hospital for total of 16 days and then home recovering for two weeks. I was out of work a total of 5 weeks. Luckily the baby handled everything great and the low fluid we had at our growth scan went right back up.

The first week that I was in the hospital Emma was passed around to different family members, but she had a blast.